Invisible War, The: What Every Believer Needs to Know about Satan, Demons, and Spiritual Warfare by Ingram Chip

Author:Ingram, Chip [Ingram, Chip]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: Baker Book Group - A
Published: 2008-01-31T16:00:00+00:00

The first year of my Christian life was one of the most delightful and difficult times I can remember. My new relationship with Christ brought a freedom that I had never experienced. I found myself singing and whistling or just plain being happy in ways I had never experienced before. To be accepted just as I was, to be forgiven absolutely and completely, and to know that God wanted to speak to me every day in the Scriptures was almost more than I could take.

But along with the new delight were some grave difficulties. I didn’t grow up in a Bible-teaching church or home. I came to know Christ only a few months before I went away to college. I was reading the Bible on my own because I couldn’t put it down, but I didn’t have a clue as to how this new life in Christ was to be lived.

I couldn’t explain why things were happening inside of me. I just knew that they were. I didn’t realize the Holy Spirit had come into my life and that since he is holy, he was creating holy desires within me. My friends couldn’t understand when I didn’t want to go barhopping with them anymore. I’m not sure I could understand it myself, except it just wasn’t fun anymore, and it made me feel dirty. Those kinds of changes were encouraging, but some things didn’t change very easily at all.

Though I didn’t know a lot of the Bible, I knew that swearing and using God’s name in vain were not things I wanted to do anymore. Yet time after time, I found myself slipping into old patterns and hearing things come out of my mouth that made me feel guilty and ashamed. I also knew that using and manipulating people for personal gain—especially girls—was out of bounds with God. Yet I found myself repeatedly defaulting to my old ways. I felt such shame that I wondered if I really had a relationship with Christ.

I didn’t know it at the time, but the enemy was whispering those doubts in my heart on a regular basis. It may sound funny now, but I probably asked Christ to come into my life at least twenty times that first year. I didn’t understand my position in him or how his grace dealt with my sin and failure. I was always doubting, always unsure, and always living with piles of condemnation and overwhelming guilt. I came close to giving up—in fact, I once officially decided to quit the Christian life—because I couldn’t stand being a hypocrite. I almost fell into Satan’s trap. I was within an inch of becoming a casualty to the enemy’s bombardment of doubt. I almost lost my footing.

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